e room. It came from
behind the straw palliasse. There was heavy breathing, almost gasping.
There was a distinct gritting of teeth. But there was also a sound of
the effort which caused these things in the wounded man. There was a
sharp ripping and tearing, the rustle of straw and--something else.
The movements were hasty, desperately hasty. Movements which suggested
the defender's realization of the narrow limits of time before his
powers would become completely exhausted.

These things lasted a matter of seconds only. Then the threat broke.
The quiet was shocked into desperate action. There was the shout of
human voices. There was the rush and scramble of feet. Then, in the
midst of the tumult, a great tongue of flame leaped up from the heart
of the straw palliasse.

Its fierce, ruddy light revealed the faces of two men leaping to the
attack of the wounded defender. They were within a yard of their goal.
But even as they were closing upon him they reeled back before the new
terror whose dread was overwhelming even in face of their murderous
lust.

The flame shot up toward the roof. Jeff staggered to his feet bearing
in his arms the blazing bundle. Higher he raised it. Higher and
higher, till the devouring flame licked at the parched thatch of grass
roof above. It caught in a second. The flames swept up along the
rough rafters till they reached the pitch of the roof. In a moment
great billows of smoke were rolling out of the dry crevices.

Just for one instant, before the fog closed down upon the whole
interior, Jeff beheld the result of his work. The men had fled toward
the closed door, and, on the ground, against the far wall, he had a
glimpse of five bodies lying crumpled up where his guns had laid them.

Suddenly a great shout reached him from without.

"Ho, Jeff! Ho, boy!"

It was a deep-throated roar which drowned the hiss and crackle of the
blazing straw.

Jeff's answer rang through the burning structure with all the power of
his lungs.

"The door! Bust it! Quick, Bud! Bust it, an' stand clear!"

For answer there was a crash on the woodwork outside. He waited for no
more. With a wild rush through the blinding, choking fog of smoke he
charged down the room. With all his might he flung the blazing
palliasse from his scorched hands. He had no idea of the direction in
which it went. His one desire now was to reach the door as it gave
under the sledge-hammer attacks of the men o